The Dackel Princess

On November 9th we sat in the den of our home and watched the satellite feeds from Berlin, as The Wall “fell”. East and West Germans met atop The Wall at the Brandenburg Gate and with open champagne bottles celebrated the end to their separation.
Hubby and I sat there with tears rolling down our faces as we watched this miraculous, historical event. I felt I was part of this history. I knew the before, and the during, and I was seeing, “the after” on TV. I turned to Hubby and said, “We have to go back!”
Two months later we stepped off another Pan Am flight at Tegel Airport. Our friends, Ed and his wife Buddy, met us at the airport and we drove to their place in Zehlendorf. We laughed and cried and talked about what this would mean to all the Germans.
The next day we drove to The Brandenburg Gate. I stood there looking at the people dancing on top of The Berlin Wall
and I turned to Hubby and said, “By golly, I want to dance!”
I am not at all graceful. Thank God Hubby is strong! He climbed up first and then helped me up.
I stood there looking around, the Brandenburg Gate behind me,

and the Reichstag to my side.

I laughed and I cried and my heart was filled with such joy. I danced and I sang and I looked to see all the other smiling faces around me. People were still hugging each other, still drunk with the joy of their freedom. Since that day, I have not taken my freedom for granted.
I have seen what it is like to live under a repressive communist regime and I have watched it crumble before me, but not until after it had taken its toll on the people and on the landscape.
We walked around where people had chipped away at The Wall, and I found this opening. A young East German soldier was peeking through. When he saw me, he smiled. We spoke for just a moment, but I will always remember that young boy in his uniform and the happiness that I could see on his face.

We walked through to the Eastern side of Berlin. So unlike my first crossing of this border, people flowed back and forth without a thought or a struggle.
We went to the restaurant where we often had lunches while visiting the Eastern half of the city. I always remarked at how quiet this place was. No one talked loudly and no groups of people laughed or joked.
Now, two months after the fall of The Wall, the people were all talking loudly and laughing and drinking their beers in groups and they were smiling!
They were finally free!

We arrived back in Berlin and the month started off as usual. Hubby flying out of Berlin with charters and then coming back each night. Most of the time he was back in time for dinner, and we frequented our favorite places. A Greek restaurant down in Zehlendorf, a Yugoslavian place just down the street from Ka De We, and of course the Europa Center where we could get Bavarian food.
During my days I would shop, or go for tours over in East Berlin or take the train down to the Wansee where I could walk, enjoy the lake and have a nice lunch.
Out at Tegel Airport, we were pleased to see a mural done in honor of Col. Gail Halvorsen, who is better known to the children of post war Germany at the Rosinenbomber (candy bomber). Col. Halvorsen flew during the Berlin Airlift and he would drop candy out of his plane for the children.

When Hubby was based in Berlin with Pan Am in the early 1970’s he got to know Col. Halvorsen and played racquetball with him. I was so pleased to see this mural.
One day we got a call from the Berlin office that the Pilot’s Secretary wanted to see Hubby. Since it was his day off we both drove over. Elke was not what one would call warm and overly friendly, but she liked the pilots and looked after them. On this day she wanted to see Hubby to let him know that he had been awarded Captain on the 727 in New York! We were so happy and excited that we went out for a special meal that night! It meant that as soon as we returned to the States at the end of the month, Hubby would go to Miami for training. I decided that I would go down too, as he was planning to stay with our friend, Benn.
The last few weeks of our stay in Berlin, I went and spent an afternoon at a local hair salon to get my hair and nails done, went to a small fur shop in East Berlin and bought myself a beautiful Russian Sable mink hat, and also suit cases to bring all of our stuff back to America in.
We had 14 pieces of luggage when we finally packed up. We raced to the airport checked everything in and then settled back for our flight to London where we would connect with a flight for New York. I was sitting next to a pleasant British man who asked me, as we flew out of West Berlin over the East, “Do you think The Wall will ever come down?”.
“Not in my lifetime”, I replied.
I have often thought about those words. How silly they seem now, for a mere two months later, The Wall was down, and I would return to Berlin to dance on top of it!

We drove into Liechtenstein to the capitol, Vaduz. We went window shopping, saw the royal palace and had lunch. We’ve all heard about this tiny country and our daughters got a real thrill going there.
On we drove into Switzerland where we saw some of the Swiss Alps, saw Lake Constance before finding the Rhine river.
The following day we drove up to Hildesheim, Germany to visit with a woman whom Hubby had dated way back before I was even born! She had been in Massachusetts working as an Au Pare when his violin teacher, Mrs. Parker, had asked him to take her out. They’d become friends and so we had looked her up so we could introduce her to our daughters and share a meal. Hubby’s friend, Karin, gives walking tours in Hildesheim, is married, with four grown children of her own, and now in 2006 several grandchildren.
After that we went back to Berlin, where we left our rental car, and got on a flight back to the USA.
We were only back in the States long enough to bring the girls to their other parent’s homes before hopping back on a Pan Am flight to Berlin.

Even though our time with Amanda and Jessica in Germany was over, we still had another 6 weeks left on Hubby’s temporary assignment.

We started taking side trips. We drove out to Salzburg, Austria. Our daughter’s were enjoying going across borders now, getting their nearly empty passports stamped. We took the girls to The Salzbergwerk-Berchtesgaden Salt Mines. It was a fun experience to slide down into the mines and then go on the small train through the mines. We were lucky enough to get the front seat on our tour, which gave us this wonderful picture.

We drove over to The Eagles Nest where Hitler spent a great deal of time with his friends and Eva Braun. The views from the top were beautiful, although it was very crowded with tourists.

The next day we drove to down toGarmisch Partenkirchen, where we took the tram to the top of Zugspitze. Unfortunately that day it was rainy, foggy and cold and we didn’t see anything. But the ride in the tram was fun.

The next day we went to two of King Ludwig’s Castles. First we went to Neuschwanstein, where we waited in line for what seemed like forever, and since it was in the bright, hot sun, it was even worse. After a couple of hours, (no kidding) we got into the castle and made our way through. What an impressive Castle! Imagine riding your horse through the night to go “home” to this grand palace.
After grabbing lunch at a small gasthaus we drove on to Linderhof Castle. This smaller palace, Linderhof has so much charm with the most beautiful gardens, and fountains. It also boasts a large collection of Meissen China. There were lamps, vases, mantle clocks, chandeliers and dinnerware. Each room was decorated with Meissen pieces that had been made especially for King Ludwig.

That night Lucie and Otto prepared a lovely feast with all of their family. It was our last night with them before we said good-bye the next morning. Our time in Bavaria had ended. It was time to move on in the last few days our daughters would be with us in Europe.